plovees, a benevolent paternalism almost unique in Italy. Over the years, they have subsidized housing, sponsored coöperatives and mutual funds, and established lavish recreational facilities on the Adriatic. Last spring, when Gaetano Mar- zotto & Figli agreed to participate in a trade fair held in Moscow, Count Gian- nino sent along with the company exhibit eighty-four employees, ranging from factory workers to top executives. The success of thIs improvised tour led to the formation of the Incontro Club, whose stated purpose is to plan and sponsor low- cost cultural tours for Marzotto em- ployees and residents of Valdagno. Italy is a very class-conscious country, but the Incontro tours are notably egalitarian. Accommodations are alike for every- one, and the cost of a given tour de- pends entirely on one's salary and status within the company. Executives gen- erally pay the full cost of a trip, clerical workers pay about a half, and factory workers pay about a third. (The cur- rent two-week tour of the United States will cost a factor) worker a mere hun- dred and fifty dollars; the actual cost is six hundred dollars a head.) The Count rejoIned us, to say that I talians used to feel that they had no need to tra vel. "After all, we thought, we have Rome, which is so obviously the center of the universe," he said. "F ascist propaganda reinforced thIs parochial point of VIew by constantly preaching that beyond the frontiers of Italy lay barbansm Now that we are developing a democracy, our old ideas are changing. .LL\.s more people take part in the actual government of the coun- try, more people will be called upon to decide international problèms. We must build up a bùdy of people who are well informed about the outside world. Bùoks, newspapers, magazines, and films are not enough; one's knowledge must be first-hand." Up came a tall, bearded man, who was introduced to us as Professor Gian Battista Lusiani, head of the hospital in Valdagno and president of the Incontro Club. "If peo- ple learn to understand each other at all levels, there will be a general widening of horI- zons," he said. "That is the spirit which animates our club. Our members are required to prepare for these trips by study- ing before they leave home. We have lectures, show films, and provide books and pam- phlets. We divide the group into units of six and give each unit a specific area for research. 34 In the course of our stay here, one unit will try to determine the standard of living of an average American family, another unit hopes to interview repre- sentatives of your various religIous de- nùminations, and a third will concen- trate on labor unions. When we return home, the members of each unit will deliver a report to the entire club on what they have learned." The Professor thereupon courteously introduced us to two or three Incontro tourists One, a pretty blonde from Plsa, told us that she was astonished to discover how green America is. "I thought of your country as a heap of k " h . d " I enormous s yscrapers, s e sal. n- stead, you have a campagna that looks as if it had been invented by Walt DIs- ney . Yesterday, we went to Hartford, where we were al] impressed by the lovely gardens and lawns, the comfort- able houses." Another traveller, a man who directs a Marzotto clothing store in Rome, told us that he was struck by the American interest in the individual. "In Hartford, the Governor of Con- necticut insisted on shaking hands with everyone of us," he said. "An Italian prefect would never take the trouble to do that." And a third traveller, a dark- eyed girl from Valdagno, said that what surprised her most was that everyone in the UnIted States appeared to be a Marzotto. "I've seen so many men and women rushing around in big cars," she said. "Back home, even if a family had a big car, I don't think the men would let the women drive around in it. In Italy, men try to keep their wives at home as much as possible." "Poverettal" said the man from Rome. "You will have a hard time get- ting used to V aldagno again." "Valdagno wil] change," said the dark-eyed girl. . I NCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE: Two letters signed by John F. Kennedy, one dealing with the McCarthy hear- ings and the other with an Atomic (( \ I ï;. I ;, ,,. 7 - - Energy Revision bill, are up for sale for $42.50 and $47.50, respectively, ac- cording to the catalogue of Charles Hamilton Autographs, Inc., 25 East Fifty-third Street. However, a note to Tiffany signed by Jacqueline Kennedy and inquiring about some gold wrist- watches may be had for $57.50. W tlderness B ECA USE the weather early last week was too chilly for us to go swimming or fishing or campIng, we took a short trip to the Manhattan Sav- ings Bank instead. How delightful it was to discover that the bankers and the New York State Departments of Con- servation and Commerce had equipped the Madison Avenue and Forty-seventh Street corner of the bank with grass and shrubbery, a trout stream, a waterfall, a skunk, a raccoon, a deer, wild turkeys, pheasants, quail, assorted smaller birds, an authentic Abercrombie & Fitch campsite, and muggy weather ! We noticed a well-dressed businessman with a briefcase peering intently into a cage that looked like a cottage and was labelled "Three Bears," but the in- mates were not visible. In a larger cage, across the way, the deer lay be- hind a bush, ears up, apprehensively sniffing the breeze. The turkey cock was pacing up and down at the front of the same cage with his feathers puffed up and his tail spread, glaring at the turkey hen and the quail and the pheasants, who wandered erratical- 1) in and out of the underbrush, and at a bank guard-forest ranger, who had his eye on a lady In a fur coat smiling benevolently into a cage where the skunk was asleep. The raccoon, in the adjacent cage, bid for her attention by falling from the roof of its cottage, dig- ging feverishly Into some sawdust, and wistfully rubbing its hands together. The campsite, on the Forty-seventh Street bank of the stream, was deserted. Later in the day, we returned to the Manhattan Savings woodland, to find the skunk stil] asleep and an- other lady in a fur coat ad- dressing the raccoon, which was also asleep, lulled by the Muzak and the murmur of the stream. Three bank offi- cials stood near the campsIte, smiling happily, and a guard was trying to persuade an eld- erly lady not to cross the bridge over the stream, assuring her that there was a better and less precarious view of the fish from the floor . Taking his word for it, we spotted two trout lurk- .\